What makes a truck a fine art truck?

An averarge citizen (like me :) sees trucks as large or small, white or not, box truck or flat bed. 

It took quite a while till I could recognise a fine art truck myself!

Demand for fine art trucks is quite low, there are usually only a few companies per country who need such vehicles, thus they are mostly tailor made and as such accordingly expensive. 

Here you can find a nicely illustrated article on this subject by our Scandinavian partner agent MTAB. And below a more detailed list of characteristics that make a fine art truck and how they guarantee security in terms of climate conditions, vibrations and theft:

• It is always a box truck, with proper walls and roof, with no windows or textile elements outside. It is both for isolation and security. There is also usually a separate key for the box and often a tail lift, vertically folded at the truck's back,  that has to be lowered before the box-door becomes accessible at all.
• The inside of a truck-box is air conditioned. You can recognise it by large air conditioners that are placed above the driver's cabin or in the very back on the box inside (see the pics). Not only antique objects, but also contemporary photographs are very fragile to high temperatures.
• The inside of a truck-box is adapted for transports of fragile objects: walls are often clad with carpet-like textile and equipped with many metal eyes , which are used to securely fix crates onboard with transport belts. Besides, there are small holes in the floor and the ceiling for vertical metal poles, with which transported objects can be additionally prevented from moving back and forth, in case binding to the walls is considered insufficient, e.g. if a crate is very large or very heavy. 
• A fine art truck has a tail lift / lifting platform. It is a very important element of equippment, which guarantees that transported objects stay in an upright position while loading/ unloading, with possibly few turbulences. From time to time a client or lender asks us, if the truck we planned for a pick-up has a tail lift. All of our truck of course do, but it means that there are shipping companies, who try to ship art works without. What may surprise you while aquiring estimates for transports of very heavy objects is, that an agent may refuse to do it or send a huge truck for a collection just one small crate. It is due to the fact that standard tail lifts can elevate max 750 kg at a time (smaller trucks only ca. 400 kg) and breaks easily down, if overloaded.

• 
  A fine-truck has an air suspension. This means it is equipped with pneumatic springs, which can be seen behind the wheels, usually in form of black air bags. This comes in handy during transports of glass or ceramic objects or collections/deliveries in hitorical city centres, where streets are often cobbled.  (The image comes from Wikipedia, there is also an article about air suspension, should you be interested in more details)

Apart from the ones above, there are some further typical fine art truck gadgets: 

• Extra courier seat, for couriers who personally accompany transports of loans
• GPS tracking system. All our trucks have built in chips that allow traffic managers to check online in real time, where the truck exactly is and with what speed it is moving. Maybe you happen to have seen the 4^th season of „Ray Donovan”. His partners steal a truck full of precious art works and blackmail a Russian gangster by hiding it. In real life, succesfully hiding a truck with a GPS chip would be pretty difficult :) 

• An ignition interlock device or breath alcohol ignition interlock device (IID and BAIID) – it is basically a built-in breathaliser whose test you have to pass before starting the engine. Meant for bus drivers, in case of fine art trucks it is actually a cherry on top of the cake. Still, it is nice to assure clients and lenders that their art works are SO well taken care of that if a driver has one beer to much in the evening, he will be automatically prevented from moving the truck next morning.  
• Alarm – every truck usually have an alarm.... but we all also know how inefficient alarms are, as far as theft prevention goes.

...and several other things which are generally good to know about trucks :)

• Already mentioned in the post about dimensions: remember that even really large fine art trucks have limited capacities, as their maximal dimensions are strictly regulated by the law. Consequently, objects higher than ca. 2,80 m usually have to be transported in a jumbo trailer with a lowered suspension and objects both wider and longer than 1,22 m cannot be placed one along another in a truck (max width 2,45 m), which as you can imagine, multiplies the shipping costs.
• It is hopefully obvious: 3,5t, 5,5t, 12t, 18t is the number of tonnes means the maximum allowed gross weight of a truck. Not its payload :) Example: our 12t truck weights empty already 9,5 t. Its maximally allowed payload is thus 2,5t. Consequently, to transport 6t of marbel sculptures, I had to calculate 3 separate rides, even though in terms of volume they would all fit in in one turn. I am sure there are shippers who would quote and execute it as a single ride – please note that it is illegal and dangerous, as such an overloaded truck is more difficult to steer and has a much longer braking distance!

• 
  The maximum speed is often limited by a built-in velocity blocker (e.g. 120 km/h for up to 3,5t; 90 km/h for up to 7,5 t and 80 km/h for all heavier – allowed speed limits differ though). This means that you cannot apply Google maps to calculate driving times! Unfortunately there are some registrars / lenders who eagerly forget laws of physics and the law in general, while planning collection and delivery, and react with fury or accusations of unprofessionalism, when our trucks don't rush through Europe with 150 km/h :)

Hopefully it is now clearer for you, why transports with fine art trucks must be more expensive and why they take much longer than Google maps say :) 

Hidden costs II - how to read a fine art shipment estimate with understanding

In the former post I was giving you advice on how to enquire an estimate, so that your agent can calculate the costs as accurately as possible and what factors can significantly influence the final charges. 

Today we'll be dealing with the second part of this topic: how to correctly read a fine art shipment estimate and understand what actually means what.There are some insider expressions used in estimates that for less experienced clients may be misleading -  the explanations below. 

Good luck with tracing the hidden costs in your estimates - hope it will save you some unpleasant surprises :) 

„all charges net”

• even if it is not explicitly mentioned, assume that the charges you receive are estimated net. To agents and the vast majority of their clients the VAT is irrelevant, as they are either entitled to VAT deduction or based in another country. If you need the VAT and the gross total to be indicated on the requested estimate, let your agent know. Please note that if the invoice's payer is a private person based in an EU country, they will be charged a gross total, according to VAT rates valid in the agent's country! (see also my post about the VAT)

„if nedeed”/ „if requested”

• read the estimate carefully and see, if all services you needed are included AND if there are no services added that you didn't ask for (like supervision, climate controlled crate etc.). Some services are offered „if nedeed”/ „if requested” and their prices have to be added or substracted to the total. Do not be surprised, if your final invoice is suddenly much higher, after you asked „the nice art moving gentlemen”, if they could unpack your new art work and take the crate back, cause you do not need it anymore. Whereas „the nice art movers” are usually nice indeed :) and obliged to deliver parcels to where the client wishes, please note that unless indicated, estimates usually do not include unpacking, installing and crate disposal. It is because most of our clients do it themselves. Besides, environmentally friendly disposal of used crates it not cheap (!) and crates can be re-used, if a work of art travels to a fair or an exhibition anyway.

„if necessary” / „if required”

• there are some services that may turn our necessary after the project has already started. It may e.g. include an extra customs inspection, which is almost never the case, but the customs are entitled to require it anytime they wish. As you can imagine, is quite time consuming to bring a crated art work to the customs office, unpack, let it be inspected, pack and bring back. Therefore, the phrase „if necesary” gives agents, who are obliged to execute this action but have no influence on wheter it occurs or no, the possibility to invoice their extra efforts.

"on hourly basis", "by consumption", "by effort" etc.

• some services, like packing, loading, unloading, warehouse handling etc. are offered on hourly basis, by consumption, by effort etc. If the information you provided while enquiring the estimate was exact and your agent is reliable, there should be not much dicrepancies. It may seem like such open, unspecific expressions leave a lot of room for manipulation or amendments; well...they do. But they have to! It happens frequently that a client, eagerly accepting an estimate, „forgets” to mention that e.g. they live in a street that is not accessible for cars this week, in the second couryard, in the third floor and the elevator has just broken down. Or the painting he/she has just finished yesterday is not dry yet and needs to be packed in a much more sophisticated way than originally planned. In such a cases, the time and effort originally calculated for this client increase rapidly and have to be invoiced, especially if it causes delays by other clients. If you are comparing several estimates, try to find a „common denominator”, like the price for an art mover / hour or for a roll of bubble wrapp. You can also simply ask for their price list of packing materials – it will tell you a lot and make it possible to check, if your invoice is issued honestly and correctly.

„insurance not included”

• this is a phrase which often outrages new clients:„It is brazen of you! Do you know how much this work of art is worth!? (Here comes usually quite a small amount, as owners of really valuable art works are more familiar with the market... :) Who is going to pay, if it gets damaged during the shipment? Are you not insured? Is it legal at all?” Of course, the goods transported by us are insured, as it is legally required. However, the maximum liability according to German law (§ 451e HGB ) is 620,00 EUR / cbm. Not too much, if you claim that this damaged piece of paper with 3 dots in pencil used to be actually worth 2 Million EUR :) As determining the value of an art work is highly subjective and speculative, and its material costs are in most cases objectively lower than these of crates and frames :), our clients are kindly requested to care for a suitable insurance policy themselves or ask us to arrange it for them. Insurance polices' prices are based on the declared values, destination and technique (glass and ceramics are much more expensive) and are usually well affordable.

"Total till JFK" / "delivery Madrid Int." / "delivery sea port Sydney" / "DDU Zurich" etc.

• Make sure that the estimate you receive for a shipment to a non-EU country also includes import customs clearance in the country of destination and, applicable by shipments via sea and air freight, sea/airport handling and final delivery costs. These costs are usually included in a separate quote by a local partner of your agent, are forwarded 1:1 to the client and they may be subject to a prepayment provision (see below). I have experienced many clients who were surprised by the fact that a shipment doesn't end upon landing and has also a „second part” in the country of destination. Even by road, if a shipment involves non-EU countries, goods may be delivered by the same agent who collected them in the EU, but have to be customs cleared, which inevitably requires a foreign agent to be engaged! In German we have a nice word for it: Nachlauf :)

"MPF not included" / "import charges to be determined" / "bond fees based of value" etc.

• Please note that estimates usually do not include the import VAT (nor American MPF) – it has to be paid by the buyer / final consignee and agents have no influence on its amount. The percentage of the declared value or information on how it is going to be accessed, should be though included in an estimate. Please do not assume that the import VAT is already included, if it is not explicitily stated on the estimate → leads to inevitable disappoinments :)

"provision on initial costs" / "provision on prepayment"/ "money transaction costs" etc.

• these costs apply when your agent has to prepay some charges before they can be invoiced to you. For example, when import fees have to be paid immediately or during import shipments. Let's imagine, you commissioned your agent to bring 5 large paintings from Tokyo via air freight. Your agent, if not located in Japan, has to organize this shipment in coordination with their local, Tokyo based partner, who will collect the works, construct a crate, prepare all the paperwork and ship them to the requested airport abroad. Your agent will shortly receive an invoice for these services and, as the commissioner, will be obliged to settle this bill, regardless of when (and if at all) you will pay for the whole shipment. As a reward for this risk and for „lending” you this amount of money for some time, as well as to cover costs of international money transactions and currency exchange charges, a provision of several percent of the transaction's value applies , usually between 3% and 10 %. If you are befriended with your agent, you can ask them to arrange for direct invoicing between you and their foreign partner agent – that will save you the prepayment provision but you'll have to cover money transaction costs yourself. 

Hidden costs I - How to cleverly enquire a fine art shipment estimate

It has already happened to each of us – we enquired an estimate for a certain service, we received an estimate and still the final invoice turned out to be an unpleasant surprise. 

First rule, which is valid for all business branches: always compare the invoice with the estimate! If the total differs, it may not always mean that the vendor is trying to cheat on you. It may just be a miscommunication between the person who prepared the estimate and the one who issued the invoice. Or possibly there have been extra circumstandes. But in many cases the reason is the discrepancy between what each of you meant and what the other party of the transaction understood.

I would like to give you some hints on how to enquire estimates for fine art shipments in order to avoid dissapoinments upon receiving the final invoce. Or at least to have a solid base for a succesful reclamation :) 

• Before sending, think your enquiry over and decide what kind of service do you really need? If you are not sure, what the possible options are, ask your agent for advice.
• Always communicate in writing. Even, if some arrangements have to be talked over on the phone, write a short „to-sum-up” email – for the record. It may save you a lot of money, in case something goes wrong on the agent's side.
• Ask for itemised charges so that you exactly know what services are offered according to the estimate. Please note that there are some charges that cannot be 100 % reliably estimated, but the more exact the information you deliver, the more precise the enquired estimate should be. If it already occured that you were surprised by your agent's final charges, insist on getting the details of your enquiry (like dimensions, package, weights, deadlines etc.) noted directly in the estimate. It leaves less space for manipulation.
• Provide your agent with all the relevant details about art works, conditions and circumstances of the shipment. If anything changes, inform them immerdiately and ask for a revised estimate. Again, it leaves less space for manipulation while invoicing. There are of course unlucky coincidences and unexpected changes, but the lack of proper information, like wrong dimensions (!!!), is the most common reason for extra charges, so be careful and precise - it does matter!

Here examples of some less obvious situations, in which I had to bill extra charges to a client:

• A painting that our art movers came to collect from an artist's studio was still wet. They spent an extra half an hour building a provisory shadow box around it. Then, a transport frame had to be constructed, which significantly increased the volume of this art work and consequently also the air freight charges.
• An art work was to be collected from a backyard but the gate was too low for a truck to drive through. Art movers had to carry the collected art works or roll them on skates for several hundred meters. Extra time, extra effort.
• A client enquired an estimate for an export shipment of several art works not mentioning that some of them were bonded. Bonded items require a separate customs clearance, a transit paper and most often an on-site inspection at a customs office. This means ca. 300-400 EUR extra right away.
• A client enquired an estimate for an export shipment of several art works not mentioning that not all of them are being shipped by the same consignor. For each consignor a separate customs clearance has to be submitted, and thus my charges for customs clearance multiplied.
• A client enquired an estimate for a consolidated transport and then demanded a delivery on a certain day. Consolidaded transports are offered when one or several clients already cover most of the costs for a ride to a certain destination, and the one who pays the most, can determine the delivery date. That means, if you are not the one who pays the most, you have to wait for a suitable opportunity or look for another option.
• Our client was the loaner of an art work and the invoice payer but the lender was the one determining the terms. It turned out upon collection that the art work definitely needed to be packed in a more sophisticated way than enquired and estimated. The object was one of Tomas Saraceno's spider web works – an extremely fragile one: just a spider web span on a branch of a tree. The lender demanded a customised crate, cushioned with dark foam, so that the whitish web could be easily seen while handling. Whereas we found this requirement fully justified, the loaner absolutely refused to pay for the requested crate, accusing our art movers of being „unable to properly do their job” by means of soft-packing materials. It took forever to find a compromise and needless to say, our charges rose.
  This is a very common case among museum shipments. Often these are lenders, who demand expensive, exaggerated and often simply redundant solutions but in the example above it was our client, who neglected checking the details with the lender and then acted unfair towards all parties involved. Again – simply lack of accurate information.

As you see – precise information is crucial for us, agents, to prepare reliable charges, which can be invoiced 1 to 1 when the project is over. The next post will be about reading estimates with understanding and recognising hidden costs! XXX